


to have and to hold

by yagalmeggo



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Romance, Temeraire is the best wedding planner you could ask for, The captains as family, They deserve the happiest of endings, married fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24046507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yagalmeggo/pseuds/yagalmeggo
Summary: Tharkay and Laurence get their happy ending.
Relationships: William Laurence & Tenzing Tharkay, William Laurence/Tenzing Tharkay
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	to have and to hold

**Author's Note:**

> Completely inspired by Noviks recent Q&A where she described post books Laurence and Tharkay as married. 
> 
> Thank you to the Temeraire discord and my best bud Sarah for Betaing!!!!

Laurence is barely awake when the door slams open. He is momentarily transported back in time to the many other times that Granby has burst in on him. Their friendship has been so full of drama that his immediate reaction is fear until he remembers that today is his wedding day and nothing is on fire.

“My friend, if you don’t get up now I’m afraid that Temeraire will rip off the wall and carry you out.”

“I am awake, John. Is Tenzing up and about yet?” Laurence asks, uncaring of Granby as he dresses. 

“He is but I’m under strict instruction to keep you away from each other.”

“Strict dragon instruction, I suppose?” 

“Of course.” 

When they meet each other’s eyes, Laurence flushes at the mirth and cheer alight in Granbys face. “I say, John, you don’t think is all ... ridiculous, do you?”

“Ridiculous is a given when Temeraire and Iskierka are involved. But I hardly think the sentiment ridiculous.” As he speaks, Granby settles a hand on Laurence’s arm, his face earnest and undoubtedly pleased. 

“I suppose we should go and assure Temeraire I haven’t jilted Tharkay.” 

Temeraire is bossing around their gathered friends when Laurence enters the vast garden. He doesn’t see Tharkay anywhere so decides he is safe to approach. His stomach is fluttering with anticipation as he watches Temeraire decide where to place the makeshift altar. In reality it is just a pergola, decorated with greenery and flowers for them to stand during the ceremony. Nevertheless, Temeraire places it down carefully, as though it were made of glass. 

In their patio he finds Granby, Harcourt and Berkeley, drinking coffee and watching their dragons bicker over where to place the chairs and where the musicians should sit. 

As expected, they all cheer as he sits down. He blushes but accepts their celebration happily, cherishing it. He draws them into conversation, accepting their teasing which worsens when Jane joins them. 

“I say, Laurence, it is prodigiously good of you to let Temeraire organise this for you. I dare say he would be chomping at the bit if you hadn’t.”

“Well, the agreement was that if he allowed us to make all the important decisions, then he could be in charge of the aesthetics and such. I believe Tenzig has bribed him. I heard mutterings about a honeymoon but neither will enlighten me.” He watches as his friends exchange knowing smiles and decides not to push, but is pleased that his assumptions were right.

“I’ve just left your fiancé with his birds. He was in the best spirits I’ve ever known him to be in.”

Catherine leaves them after breakfast to pick up Laurence’s family from the summer house they were staying at. It was far enough away that society wouldn’t place them at their son’s illicit marriage but close enough that his family can join them for the celebration without anyone being the wiser. 

Being so busy with real and imagined tastes, Temeraire isn’t as clingy as Laurence had feared. In his mind the night before he had rehearsed the various platitudes he would tell the dragon: ‘no, this doesn’t change how I care for you.’ ‘Yes, everything will continue the same way.’ 

Laurence has spent the day lazily, with anticipation tickling at his mind through it all. He went on a flight with Temeraire, had lunch with his mother and then a long, leisurely bath to be ready for their sunset ceremony. Being surrounded by his nearest friends has him almost giddy with delight, so pleased to have such accepting and dedicated friends. 

He voices this to Jane when she joins him while he is bathing. The tub in the spare room that he has claimed for the weekend. She softens after he says it before splashing his face with the bath water, cackling and cursing his sentimentality. They chatter as he washes; she helps him to wash his hair thoroughly. It is a welcome relief that they are so at ease with each other considering their past. She pours wine and hurries him along, passing his clothes behind the panel. 

When he is dressed, sipping the wine that Jane passes him, he is surprised to find his hands shake as he buttons his shirt. As he undoes his neck clothagain, there is a light knock on the door and John sticks his head around, grinning. 

“I have an illicit visitor for you, Laurence.” He beckons Jane away with a chuckle and Laurence is left, standing holding his neckcloth, staring at the open door. 

Tharkay enters with a smirk and Will’s heart jumps into his mouth.

“My dear Tenzig,” he breathes, and let’s Tharkay kiss him. They kiss easily, smiling into it and it fills Laurence with warmth. He melts into their embrace, so practiced now that it is perfect in every way. Pulling away, Laurence rests his head on his fiancé’s shoulder, breathing in his woods scent. 

“Today has felt an age without you. It made me realise just how attached we are.” Tenzing laughs and Will feels it rumble against his chest. 

“Will, I would weather any dragon fury or loneliness if it led me to you again.” And Laurence can’t help but kiss him again. They draw back when Jane shouts through the door, “My dears we have five minutes.”

The sun is setting when the music starts, a delicate string quartet. Although they are facing the horizon, the hulking forms of the dragons block out the worst of the glare, leaving a happy orange glow. 

Tenzing waits at the altar, smiling as genuinely as Will has ever seen. Will absently sees that the seats are filled with friends and colleagues but all he can focus on is the happy face of his fiancé and the happy expression on his dragon’s face. 

His mother squeezes his hand as she releases him. He bends down to let her kiss his cheek before she takes her seat. 

Tenzing holds out his hands and Will grasps them gratefully. He feels the heat of the congregants stares but he can’t pull his eyes away from Tenzing’s own. From behind them, Temeraire rumbles happily and noses slightly at Will’s shoulder, receding when Jane strides into place. 

She winks at him and starts her speech. The ceremony passes in a honey scented haze. The honey suckle that decorate the pergola, the soft lilting violin, Jane’s steady familiar voice and the grip of Tharkay’s hands in his. They have not prepared vows to say in the ceremony, deciding instead to say the vows in private. They answer Jane’s lead and say the usual ‘I will’s and ‘I do’s, all the while smiling at each other like idiots. They take the rings from Temeraire’s outstretched talon, both of them engraved with the others name. 

Will finds the corners of his mouth wobble in overwhelming sincerity, and there is sharp burn at the back of his eyes. When he says the final ‘I do’, his voice comes out hoarse and his face slips, crumpling into overjoyed tears. Tenzing laughs and cradles his face, wiping away the tears and kissing him thoroughly. 

When they break apart, there is a great deal of cheering. Iskierka leaps into the air and ‘delicately’ releases her collection of petals. White petals stream down, buffeted by the sea breeze and fluttering to the ground. Will is seized by his friends, at first shaking his hand but then giving in and embracing him like the family that they are. As he pulls away from Catherine’s hold, he sees his mother over her shoulder giving Tenzing a classy kiss on the cheek and what looks like a stern talking to.

Although they had insisted that they would not be having a first dance, both finding the idea too awkward, when the time comes and their friends demand it, both Will and Tharkay just smile at each other, blissfully at ease, and dance. Will treasures the feel of his husband in his arms as they glide over the grass. The lanterns are barely registering n his eyes as they dance, all Laurence knows is the smell of his lover’s hair and his arm around his waist.

They dance many times through the night, together and with other partners. Granby and Berkeley drink too much and have a splendid time pretending to waltz, Berkeley with a hand wrapped around Jihn’s hook as seriously as though they were in the court of Versailles, sending everyone into raucous laughter. Will dances with his mother, Emily, Jane and Catherine, all of them with sincere congratulations for him. He watches across the field as Tenzing celebrates, his jacket discarded and neck cloth loose.

His mother and brothers are the first to leave, carried back by Temeraire and Emily to keep him company. The party does not slow, however. The aviators drink and talk and reminisce and embrace, all of them entranced by the very fact they are here and they survived. Will overhears Temeraire and Iskierka planning on a protest against the sodomy laws and ruthlessly shoves it to the back of his mind, deciding that would be a problem for future-Will.

When hands grip around his waist and a low, throaty voice says “Why hello, Captain Laurence,” in his ear, the laugh that escapes him may, in some worlds, he considered a giggle. He blames the alcohol and turns into his husbands embrace and says “Hello to you, Mr Laurence.” 

Their silliness erupts into chuckles but they still hold each other, watching the lantern lit party. Little is sitting on Granby’s lap, looking half asleep while he and Catherine talk animatedly. Chenery is asleep, his head pillowed on Catherine’s lap as she cards her fingers through his hair. Emily and Demane are dancing slowly, watched by a sleepy Kulingile. Jane and Berkeley are, somehow, still drinking, both sitting in their respective dragon’s forelegs, facing each other and talking. The other dragons have all either gone swimming, or are heaped together in a pile of tails and wings and snouts, several sets of snores emerging. 

Tenzing sighs happily and kisses Will’s neck – so sweetly it makes Will’s chest ache. “Is now a good time to slip away?” He murmurs into his neck. 

“I dare say if Temeraire causes a fuss, someone will set him right.” Will answers, heart seizing with love as he surveys the scene. “And I gave Jane the money to pay the band.” 

“Smart thinking ahead, Captain.” Tenzing leers. 

“Well, darling, I had the inclination you would want to spirit me away.” 

Tenzing presses a smiling kiss to Will’s mouth and whispers: “Always, my dear,” before pulling Laurence away, back to the house and their waiting bed. If anyone notices them leave, neither hear, both too preoccupied with each other.


End file.
